Bunnies Visit Toddler Story Time

Bunnies from the Chesapeake Guinea Pig Rescue visited story time! What a wonderful surprise just in time for Easter!!! They were lopeared rabbits, named Braxton and Harley.

Egg-citing!

With Easter just around the corner and birds building nests, I thought that eggs would be a good topic for storytime this week.  We are exploring the different kinds of eggs. 

Some good books are:

Grambling, Lois.  Can I have a stegosaurus, Mom? Can I? Please?

Gravett, The odd egg
Heller, Ruth.  Chickens aren't the only ones

Flannel board story:
"Three eggs in a basket" found in Sierra, Judy.  Mother Goose's Playhouse
 "Mother Hen" : clip art pictures for traditional rhyme
            Five eggs and five eggs
            That makes ten
            Sitting on top is Mother Hen
            Cackle, cackle, cackle
            What do I see?
            Ten fluffy chicks
            As yellow as can be!

Activity:
 Prepare plastic easter eggs with a small photo of something that hatches from an egg.  I found clip art photos of various birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects.  Make enough for one for each child.  Place in a basket.  Let children open their egg in turn and talk about what is inside.

Music: "The chicken walk" found on the Wiggles Go Bananas CD  with shaker eggs, of course!

This is the Way We Mix the Dough

Here is a fun song to do with scarves...

This is the Way We Mix the Dough

(Sung to the tune of "Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush)

Use the scarves to pretend to make a pizza. Mix, knead, stretch, toss and twirl the dough (scarf)!

1. This is the way we mix the dough, mix the dough, mix the dough. This is the way we mix the dough to make a pizza pie.
2. This is the way we knead the dough...
3. This is the way we roll the dough...
4. This is the way we toss the dough...
5. This is the way we spread the sauce...
6. This is the way we sprinkle the cheese...
7. This is the way our pizza bakes, pizza bakes, pizza bakes. Take it out and eat a slice, our yummy pizza pie!

Caterpillar - Butterfly Craft

Caterpillar that turns into a butterfly in his cocoon.

This craft is to make a caterpillar that turns into a butterfly in his cocoon. Here is the butterfly pattern that I used:

Then I cut out the butterfly wings and the body (which will be used as the caterpillar).

Then I decorated the butterfly wings and decorated the caterpillar with pom-poms, a pipe cleaner, and wiggle eyes.

Next I added velcro on both sides so that the body will stick to the wings.

Finally, you roll the butterfly wings up and put it in the toilet paper tube (that I covered with brown paper to make my cocoon). In the picture below you can see the velcro. So when you put the caterpillar in the cocoon, try to stick it to the velcro on the wings. That way when you pull it out, he will transform into a beautiful butterfly.